Updated
Results and sources
What a finished search shows: a table of companies with a description and the people found, links to each company's site and profiles, and what happens when a search finds fewer companies than asked.
- Every plan
Table of contents
The results table
A search fills a table with one row per company. Companies appear as they are found; the people at each one fill in afterwards. Every column below is on by default.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Number | The row number. Hover a row to swap it for a checkbox and select it. |
| Company | The company's name and favicon. Click it to open the company page. |
| Domain | The company's web address, linked to its site. |
| Description | One line on what the company does and who its customers are. A dash means none was found. |
| People | How many people were found. Click it to open them under the row. |
| Bookmark | Saves the company to a list. |
"More columns", at the bottom right of the table, adds Location, Employees, Founded and Source. Your choice is remembered in this browser. The Source column says "Web search" for every company.
After the search ends, "Search table" filters the rows by name, domain or description. Select rows to save them to a list or export them as a CSV. "Save all" and "Export CSV" at the top work on the whole table, and also while the search is still running.
Where the information comes from
Openlead links each company to its own site and each person to their profile:
- Companies. The Domain column and the button on a company page that reads "Open" and the domain go to the company's own site. The company page marks its Overview as "from the search" with the same link.
- People. Each person has a profile link, shown as its address, for example a LinkedIn profile. A person page has "From the profile", the first lines the search read, unedited.
Sites that only list other companies, such as LinkedIn, Crunchbase, G2 or Wikipedia, are removed from the results, so a row is always a company's own site. Openlead does not show a separate reason why a company matched; the description and the site are what to check.
While a search runs
The conversation lists each step. Steps that are still to come are faint, with "Soon…". The running step shows a timer, and a finished step keeps its duration.
- Reading, with the site's address. Only when you started from a website.
- Finding companies that match.
- Checking your database for known companies. Openlead looks up the people it already has for these companies.
- Finding people at each company, with a count such as "9 of 24". Up to 3 people per company.
- Saving to your database.
Steps a search does not need drop off the list. In the table, a company's People cell reads "queued" while it waits its turn, "finding…" while it runs, then the number of people, or "none found". The bar above the table reads "running", the number of companies found and the people lookups done. You can save or export while people are still arriving.
When a search ends
The conversation ends with one sentence: how many companies and people the search found, how many companies were already in your database, and how long it took. An identical search you repeat within 7 days is answered from your database and says so.
Press ⌘K from anywhere in your workspace to start another search. Type a sentence or a website, then press ⌘↵ to run it as a search. Plain ↵ opens the first match instead (a list, company, person or earlier search), so typing never starts a search by accident. When nothing matches, ↵ runs the search. A search needs 10 characters or a website. Inside ⌘K, ⌘E opens the focused list with its export open.
Fewer companies than you asked for
A search asks for 25 companies unless your sentence names another number. Openlead does not warn you when it finds fewer; the count in the answer is what it found. A search can find fewer when:
- the web search has no more matching companies to give;
- directory and social sites are removed from the results;
- your month's companies and credits cover less than you asked for. A search never goes past what you can pay for.
If nothing fits, the table says "Nothing matched closely enough". Nothing is charged; loosen one detail in your sentence and search again.
When a search fails
A failed search is never charged. The table shows what happened with "Try again", which starts the same text as a new search, and "Edit the search", which puts your text back in the search box on the dashboard.
| Message | What it means |
|---|---|
| You're out of companies this month | This month's companies and your credits are used up. The search was refused before it ran. Your database, lists and exports keep working. See plans and credits. |
| We could not read that website | The address you pasted could not be read. Check it, or describe the customer in a sentence. |
| The search provider did not answer | The service that looks companies up did not respond. Nothing is written to your database. Your sentence is kept; try again in a minute. |
| The search stopped before it finished | Something else went wrong. Try again. |
If only a people lookup fails, the search still finishes and that company shows "none found".
The company and person pages
Click a company name to open its page: its domain, location and when it was first seen, an Overview, the people found, and a Details panel with its name, employees, headquarters and founding year, the lists it is in, and every search of yours that found it. A person page shows their title, company, profile link and location, plus the search that found them. See people at a company.
FAQ
Why does a company have no description?
The search could not read one from its site. The company page says so, and a later search may fill it in.
Why did I get fewer than 25 companies?
See "Fewer companies than you asked for" above. Openlead does not pad the table: it shows only companies it found.
What if my connection drops during a search?
The page says "Reconnecting to the search…" while it tries to reconnect.